These enormous stone jars are scattered all over Laos. They're about two thousand years old, and they come in a range of shapes and sizes. They obviously had practical value to whoever made them, but researchers disagree about what that value was.
The most popular theory, postulated by Madeleine Colani in 1930, is that they were used in funeral rites. According to her, the remains of the dead were placed in the jars to decompose, and then buried later after decomposition was complete.